reinforced detachment of Colonel Kaufman – all under the command of General Panteley Kiselov headed for Tutrakan, pushing back the Romanian forces to their main defensive lines and encircling the fortress within 48 hours. Meanwhile, the rest of the 1st Division advanced to protect their flanks and the 1st Cavalry Division engaged and defeated the Romanian border guards and vanguards around the village of Kurtbunar managing to cut the communication lines between Silistra and Dobrich. On the right Bulgarian flank the 6th Bdin Division and forces of the Varna Fortified Area formed up in a mobile reserve also advanced, meeting weak resistance in the process. General Aslan realized that his troops were too scattered and could be defeated piecemeal and ordered on 2 September General Zayonchkovski to move his corps from Cobadin to within 10–15 kilometers of the Bulgarian border but it was not executed and instead on the next day only the cavalry was sent to reconnoitre a 40 kilometer part of the front that was far enough from the main Bulgarian thrust. This allowed General Kolev's 1st Cavalry Division to defeat at the villages of Kochmar and Kara Pelit a brigade of the Romanian 19th Division, dispatched to aid the encircled forces in Tutrakan, and report the capture of some 1,035 of its soldiers. This forced the commander of the 19th Division that was located Dobrich to withdraw his remaining forces from the town and allow the Varna Mobile Reserve to enter it on 4 September. On that day the forces around Tutrakan began preparation for the final assault of the fortress and Major Kurt von Hammerstein-Equord took command of all forces operating against its western sector from Colonel Kaufman. A day earlier General Toshev had ordered General Kiselov to commence the principal assault on the main Romanian defensive lines around Tutrakan but it was delayed for 5 September. For the attack he could count on a strike force of some 55,000 men deployed in the 4th Preslav Infantry Division (17 battalions), the 1/1 Brigade (8 battalions) and the Hammerstein Detachment (1 German and 5 Bulgarian battalions) or a total of 31 infantry battalions, 7 squadrons, 132 artillery pieces and 57 machine guns. The Romanians could initially oppose the attackers with 19 battalions from the 15th division but they were quickly reinforced to 36 when the fighting began and could count on the support of 246 artillery pieces